Disclaimer: I don't own any Battle Cards and Star Force characters. I do own a few original characters.

Chapter 7: Yusei vs. Taurus

"Battle Card! Tidal Edge!" Yusei left hand transforms into a long sword made out of water as he does a flying attack on Bud.

Bud reacts by using both his hands to catch the blade. He smirks and said, "Done hiding, huh. Take this! Fire Breath!" Bud shoots out fire from his snout at Yusei.

The flames hit Yusei as he gritted his teeth to bear the burning pain from the fire. He pushes his sword arm down towards Bud with all of his might, which shocks the Minotaur. With all his might, he manages to let his blade slip through Bud's grip and strikes him down at his shoulder. Bud screams in pain as steam came out of the wound and he goes down, letting his fire attack to stop. Yusei didn't took his time to hesitate as he did an upper slash attack at Bud's chest that causes Bud to fell on his back.

Yusei jumps away from Bud and pulls out a Battle Card. "Battle Card! Recovery!" he said as he inserts the Battle Card into the Transer while keeping his sword as his arm. The belt glows and the transparent green light envelops over his body for a few short seconds to heal his wounds.

Bud recovers by getting up as he glares at his enemy. "Mega Man… Where is Luna? Tell me where she is so I can finish her!"

"I can't let you…" he replies in a solemn tone. "I talk to your friend, Luna and she told me about your reason why you want to kill her. She's really sorry for threatening you and she hopes that you can forgive her."

"Lies!" Bud yells in a fit of rage. "She only wants an apology from me so she can save her own life! That vixen deserves to die!"

Taurus appears next to Bud and laughs. "Omega-Xis! Can you honestly expect your human partner to harm another human? Why not just give up now and hand over the key?" The FMian bull acts cocky as if he has won the battle.

"Are you sure about that, Taurus?" Omega-Xis asks in an arrogant tone. "I guess you need to learn how strong humans like Yusei are."

Yusei knows what Omega-Xis is talking about as he points his aquatic sword at Bud. "I promise Luna that I save you! And I will! By the way, Taurus, have you heard the term, 'Action speaks louder than words'?"

"No… I don't…" Taurus tilts his head.

"Really? That's too bad…" With a slight kick, Yusei appears in front of Bud and thrust his aquatic sword at Bud's chest. Bud is lucky that he's in his EM Wave form or he would be dead from the instant that he got stab.

Taurus gasps with his eyes wide open. "What's going on? I thought your human partner couldn't harm another human!"

"Even I'm surprise," Omega-Xis spoke as if he's in agreement with Taurus's shock. "Apparently, humans have a weird way of communicating with each other besides words. They use violence as their voices to reach out to each other when using their actual voices fails."

Taurus is surprise to hear Omega-Xis explanations. Ever since Cygnus told him about Yusei's weakness, he always thought that he has the advantage of getting back the Andromeda Key. He didn't think that there are ways for Yusei to hurt another human means that his weakness is no more. However, it doesn't change the fact that he has more power to beat Omega-Xis and get back the key.

"That doesn't change a thing!" Bud exclaims. "Anger Punch!"

With the might of his anger on Luna, Bud musters up all of his strength into his arm and punches Yusei. Yusei switches out his sword for his hand and quickly blocks the punch by using both of his hands. When the punch hits, Yusei felt the weight of the attack, but he manages to hold his standing position. Bud keeps pushing his fist down to crush Yusei; however, Yusei pulls out a Battle Card.

"Battle Card! Ice Meteor!" he inserts the Battle Card into his Transer as a wizard staff appears in his hand.

The tip of the staff glows and Bud pays no attention to it as Yusei saw something flying towards the two from a far distance. Yusei saw a meteor made out of ice coming towards his location and he believes that the speed of that ice meteor is fast enough to do some damage on Bud. Yusei quickly jumps away to let Bud's punch to hit the ground. Bud fails to notice the ice meteor coming towards him as the meteor hits him, which causes an icicle explosion. Bud somehow manages to survive the attack, but he is still wobbly to stand.

Yusei decides to try again to reason with Bud. He asks, "Bud, will you please stop this? Don't let your anger consume you and just go back to normal."

"Like hell I will!" he shouted with his pent up rage. "Take this! Ox Tackle!"

Bud charges a tackle at Yusei. Yusei did the same thing, but he goes in a stance like an animal and runs like he's wiping the floor at full speed. They collided but Bud is the only one who got hurt because Yusei tackles him from the gut. The force from Yusei's tackle is able to push Bud down again.

Yusei said with a sly smirk, "Mega Man style! Wiping-The-Floor Tackle Technique!"

Bud got up and roars, "Don't mess with me!" He charges at Yusei again.

However, Yusei stops him by grabbing onto his horns. "Mega Man style! Wringing-Out-The-Towel Technique!" he said as he twists the horns as if he's actually wringing out the towel.

Bud felt the strength of that twist as Yusei manages to bend his horns. Then he pulls back to lift Bud up in the air and tosses him away with all of his might. Bud and Taurus are both shock to see that Yusei has manage to flip the table to work for his favor. Omega-Xis felt proud to have Yusei as a partner as he wonders if Yusei got those techniques from TV or something. Yusei readies his self for another round with Bud, while unknown to anyone that Luna is watching the fight from a safe distance.

"Bud…" Yusei spoke. "Don't you know that Luna is crying?"

"Luna… is crying…?"

Yusei nods his head. "She is sad of what you have become and she's also sad that she is too late to apologize to you about that threat. Your friend, Luna, doesn't want me to fight you, but I promise her that I will save you!"

When Bud heard from Yusei that Luna was crying, he's starting to reflect on things. He really wanted to see Luna suffer before he kills her, but deep down, he starting to feel guilty. He finds it strange because he should still be angry, he should still have rage. However, after being pummeled by Yusei, his mind is clear from his anger and he now thinks more rationally with a question: what's the point in killing Luna? It's true that the reason why he's mad is because she threatens to cut off their Brother-Band, but the reason why she made that threat is because of Bud's earlier violent actions. Is her threat reason enough for him to kill her?

Then Taurus exclaims, "Don't listen to Mega Man! He's only saying that so you can forget the reason why I give you the power to get your revenge! Also, I bet that girl is laughing at your incompetence of not beating the hero."

"Taurus!" Yusei yells out of anger. "Stop spouting lies! Bud! Don't listen to him! That FMian is only using you for doing some bad things!"

However, it seems that lie works because Bud's anger is refueled. "I'm going to kill her! But first, I must get rid of you, Mega Man! Fire Tower!" Bud slams his fist down to the ground as five tower made out of fire surrounds Yusei and they draw closer to him.

"I'm disappointed in you," he said in a sad tone as he pulls out a Battle Card. "Battle Card! Wide Wave!" He inserts the Battle Card into his Transer as his hand gathers up a ball made out of water.

He twirls around like a ballerina, as the ball of water becomes a stream. The speed of that spin allows the stream of water to extinguish the fire towers. As soon as the fire dies down by the water, Bud and Taurus are both shock to see Yusei is still standing. Yusei angrily glares at Bud as he inserts another Battle Card as his hand transforms into a long green energy sword.

"You were supposed to be Luna's friend and yet you want to continue to upset her." He slowly walks towards in an intimidating way. "To be truthful, I also hate how she treats you, but I couldn't understand it because I never experience it before. But I don't like people who make others cry, so I can sympathize with you. That changes when I saw her crying and you try to kill her to satisfy your anger. I hope you are real proud of yourself because I'm not holding back to knock some sense into you!"

Yusei charges at Bud and quickly slashes him at the chest. Bud retaliates by punching him, but he dodges the retaliation and attacks his underarm. When he got to Bud's backside, he immediately grabs him by the shoulder to force him to turn around and slashes his arm. Bud felt the pain as he tries to glare back at Yusei; however, Yusei brings out a terrifying aura that makes Bud's glare useless. Bud knows that Yusei is being serious and wonders if he can win. He is so proud of his big body and strength and he believes that he has the advantage, but Yusei proves that being big and strong means nothing when his opponent doesn't stand still.

Taurus is surprise at this development as he tries to get Bud to fight back. He said, "What's the matter? You should be beating him! Not getting beaten yourself!"

"Taurus," Yusei spoke to get the FMian's attention. "Why don't you give up and get out of Bud? There's no way you can beat me. And also…"

Yusei disappears and reappears behind Bud and strikes him at the back. Bud retaliates by using his flamethrower snout, but Yusei dodges by sliding underneath Bud's fire spread. Bud couldn't react in time as Yusei uses his other arm and did an uppercut straight at Bud's face, which causes him to stop spewing fire and fall down.

"…I think it is time to finish this."

"Bud!" Luna shouted as she run towards Bud. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Bud is surprise to Luna is worried about him, even though she knew that he's going to kill her. "Luna," he spoke, "why do you care? Don't you remember that I try to kill you?"

She nods her head. "I do and I really want to run away, but deep down… if I run away, then our bond will be gone forever. Bud, I'm really sorry for threatening you. I was worried that you might get into trouble if you try to scare people with your big body. As your Class President, I have to stop and correct you, but I ended up choosing the wrong words and hurt your feelings. I want to apologize to you, but I got scared that we might end up fighting each other. So I run away and hope that everything would eventually gone back to the way it was. I'm really sorry…"

Bud gasps to see tears coming out of Luna's eyes. He always remembers her to be such a strong girl who never cries; however, seeing her like this has given Bud to see her differently. She's not really strong; she acted strong to hide her weakness. It took Bud a few beatings from Yusei to realize how much pain he's causing to her and seeing her crying has started to weigh heavily in his heart. This weight of guilt is heavy enough to get Bud's anger to be gone as he started crying.

"Luna…" he spoke, "no, Prez… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for my violent behavior yesterday; I only did that to protect you, but I end up causing more problems. And I'm also sorry for trying to kill you; I was just so mad that you threaten me and I let my anger to blind my judgment. I really want to talk to you too, but I'm scared that we might fight too."

"Fighting amongst friends is one of the things to understand each other," said Yusei as if he's wise man. "However, running away after creating a fire from that fight would cause a spread that burns down your bond. It's time for you two to stop running away and face each other to re-plant your bond."

They couldn't help but agree with what Yusei has just said. Luna and Bud hug each other and forgive each other. Yusei believes that it is over; however, Omega-Xis warns Yusei to get Luna out of Bud's grip. He wonders what the EM Wave alien is talking about, but then heard Bud's agonizing scream. Luna worries about Bud since he's in pain, but Yusei pulls her away as Bud stands up and roars like a wild bull.

"Talk about useless," said Taurus even though he doesn't appear.

"Mega! What just happen?" Yusei asks.

Omega-Xis answers, "Taurus has taken control over Bud."

"He can do that!"

"Yes… But that's makes it easy to defeat him while Bud receives minimum damage. You remember my explanation after you defeated that Jammer the other day? Bud has become an unwilling host being force to fight."

"Ox Tackle!" Taurus declares as he uses Bud's EM Wave form body to tackle him and Luna. However, Yusei grabs Luna with one arm and dodges the attack. "Humans are such weak creatures. I give this guy power and this is what I get: a big softie. Oh well, I'm going to get the key in my own way!"

"Don't worry," Yusei said to Luna, "I will save Bud! So I'm going to beat that bull out of him!"

He charges at Taurus with his long sword in hand and attacks him. Taurus blocks his slash by using his big arms as his shield and retaliates by spewing fire at him. Yusei manages to dodge by jumping up in the air as he pulls out a gold Battle Card. Taurus stops spewing his flames and looks up to see Yusei in the air. Yusei inserts the Battle Card into his Transer and his belt glows.

A voice from the belt shouted, "Finisher! Mega Kick!"

The belt sends green electricity to his right leg. With the energy from the belt given to Yusei's leg, Yusei performs a diving kick at Taurus. Just as he thought that the Mega Kick would finish the battle, Taurus manages to stop the finisher by grabbing Yusei's leg before he hits him. Yusei is surprise by this as Taurus throws him away.

"Mega Man!" Luna screams in concern.

"Fire Tower!" Taurus slams his fist to summon the five fire towers. However, unlike the previous ones, these are quicker as they quickly engulf Yusei in flames.

Luna stands and watches to see Yusei being cook alive. Taurus stands and laughs in hopes that his fire can wring out the Andromeda Key out of Omega-Xis. Yusei, while in the flames, grits his teeth as he bears the burning pain that the fire is making. If Yusei were in his human form, he would have been dead by the intensity of the flames. He bears the pain until the fire is gone, leaving him still breathing with his EM Wave Form charred black and he's barely standing.

"Kid!" Omega-Xis yells. "Are you okay?"

A smirk appears on Yusei's face. "I'm fine, that fire is nothing compare to my flames."

Taurus scoffs. "Coming from the human who got burned. Omega-Xis, you should give up now and hand over the Andromeda Key. If you do, I bet I will spare your human partner… also, I bet the king will spare you by putting you in his dungeon. How does that sound?"

Omega-Xis was about to speak, but Yusei stops him from saying anything. Yusei taunts Taurus by saying; "You can take that offer and toss it into a nearby black hole! There's no way we can simply hand over the key!"

"If you defy the king, then your planet is going to be destroy."

"But if I give you the key, then you destroy this planet anyway!" he retorts. "I'm not going to let you to destroy this planet! There are people that I know who are precious to me and they too have people who are precious to them. I won't let anyone to lose their precious people!"

Yusei puts up a strong smile that make Taurus to be wary and Luna's eyes sparkle. Yusei's belt begins to glow and it surprises everyone. The belt shines blindly bright as if Yusei is being engulfed by it. When the light dies down, a gold Battle Card pops up from the top of the belt. Yusei is surprise to have another gold Battle Card and wonder why his belt makes them.

"I'm not sure what's going on, but… I'm done thinking about it!" Yusei charges at him and attacks him with his sword.

Taurus blocks it; however, Yusei keeps pushing him back. Taurus is shock that Omega-Xis's human partner is pushing him despite how much damage he received. Even Yusei and Omega-Xis are surprise by this sudden burst of energy. Yusei wonders where this sudden burst of energy comes from as he continues to push Taurus with all of his might.

He came to realize that he saw this in every superhero show that he watches. He remembers that heroes, when they're fallen from their wounds, get up and suddenly have this burst of energy that they use to fight against overwhelming odds. Those usual burst of energy stems from willpower, determination, etc., but this is real life—he shouldn't have this burst just like the heroes have.

Taurus pushes back to create a standstill, but with Yusei putting up a pressure, he can't seem to retaliate. Yusei manages to use Taurus's big arms to block his fire breathing attack. This gives Yusei a chance to use the new gold Battle Card to save Bud and get everyone back to the real world.

Yusei inserts the Battle Card into his Transer and his belt begins to glow. "Sword Finisher! Mega Slash!" said the belt's voice as Yusei's body glows green and he begins to tremor.

Then he steps back to break out of the hold and slashes at Taurus's gut. He didn't hesitate to attack again as he slashes at the chest and arm. He spins around and hits Taurus's back, other arm, and legs. He spins around again and he did a horizontal backslash at the chest, thus finishing the battle and forcing Taurus out of Bud's body. Taurus collapses to the ground as Yusei's body stops glowing and his sword transforms back into his hands.

Yusei turns around to see Bud's EM Wave Form destabilizing as the big guy transforms back into his normal human self with his eyes closed. Luna runs towards Bud to see if he's okay as Yusei feels a heavy weight in his heart. As he is going to check on Bud, Taurus appears and he's heavily wounded, weak, and still alive. Looking at the FMian now, he doesn't know that he should feel angry or pity. As he approaches the EM Wave bull, Taurus started laughing as if he's laughing at his own defeat.

"So this is it," Taurus spoke, "To think I was defeated by a traitor and a softhearted human. You may think that you've won this battle, but there are going to be others coming after you."

"Finish him off!" Omega-Xis exclaims. "If we kill him, then the other FMians would know that you're a force that they should fear."

Yusei wanted to comply with his EM Wave alien friend's request, but he turns around and walks towards Bud. The two EM Wave aliens are surprise by Yusei's actions as Yusei said, "Just go… Get out of here! However, if I see you using Bud one more time, I won't give you another chance!"

"Mega Man!" Omega-Xis growls. "If you let Taurus live, he would come back and attack again! We have to kill him now!"

Luna watches the conversation and wonders why Yusei doesn't kill the one who uses Bud. Yusei shouted, "What's good about killing someone? I understand your feelings, but killing someone doesn't make things better!"

Taurus laughs at how truly softhearted Yusei is. "I bet you're regretting of having this guy to fight against us!" With one final laugh, Taurus disappears from everyone's sights; possibly escape the truck's computer space, leaving Omega-Xis to growl out of anger.

"Mega Man…" Luna softly spoke.

Yusei turns to Luna and asks, "How is your friend?"

She gasps and panics for a second. After she regains her composure, she answers, "Bud's fine. I check his pulse and its normal."

"Thank goodness," Yusei sighs in relief. "Wait… I just realized that we're inside a moving truck…"

Everyone become silent for a moment until Yusei quickly runs towards the truck's main system computer; which is a small tower that has a screen and a computer keyboard. Yusei types on the keyboard to activate the truck's outside camera to see that the truck is still moving, but he has no idea where it's heading. He tries to regain control, but he fails to gain control due to him panicking over the thought that the truck may crash into something. He quickly runs back to the teenagers, grabs them, and pulse them out of the Wave World.

At the park, Yusei appears with Luna and the unconscious Bud. Yusei is still in his EM Wave form because he doesn't want Luna and Bud to know his identity. Luna thanks Yusei for saving her and her friend and also showing her a beautiful look of the Wave World. Yusei appreciates her gratitude, even though he felt a little guilty that he has some sort of part of getting Luna into that kind of danger. A groan can be heard as they turn to see Bud slowly opening his eyes.

Luna asks as he's getting up, "Are you okay?" When he nods his head, she hugs out of happiness, which made Bud happy as well.

Yusei scratches his head and said, "I'm sorry for that beat down earlier, it was the only way to knock some reason into you." Then he notices Bud looking down at the ground with a sad look on his face. "What's wrong?"

Bud answers, "I did some horrible things because I let that Taurus guy to give me power. I destroy a shop, I try to kill Luna, and I attack you. How can I be forgiven from the things that I have done?"

"But no one knows that you're the one who destroyed the hardware store," Yusei reassures him by saying that. "All they know is a red bull, not you! Also, no one is hurt, so you don't need to be guilty over it." Yusei notices that Bud is still looking guilty. He scratches his head and asks, "Tell me, how are you going to atone for the deeds that you have done?"

"Atone…?"

Yusei nods his head. "It's impossible to atone it since your friend and I are the only ones who knows. But if you asks me, I think the only way to atone them is for you to live your life."

"To live his life…?" Luna tilts her head.

"I don't have the answer how because I believe that you know the answer." Yusei smiles at Bud and signals him when he turns to Luna.

Bud turns to Luna as he gasps and nods. "I see… Luna, I'm really sorry for my actions before."

Luna shook her head. "Don't be, I am the one who should be sorry."

Yusei smiles and said, "Well, I have to go now. You two better go home as well." He warps back into the Wave World, leaving the two to look up at the sky.

"Bud," Luna spoke to get his friend's attention. "Mega Man is cool, isn't he?" Her eyes sparkle when she asks him that.

The big guy nods his head and he answers, "He is. He really does live up to what the news say about him."

"So you have failed to obtain the Andromeda Key from that traitor!" An angry yell came from the speakers of a computer.

Taurus retreats back to his and Cygnus's hideout, the abandoned factory, only to be in time to see Cygnus gain contact to the Planet FM. Though the FM King overheard the conversation between his two subordinates because Taurus didn't notice the computer was on. Once the conversation is over, King Cepheus quickly scolds him for his failure.

"I'm sorry, my liege," Taurus guiltily responds. "I failed to obtain the Andromeda Key, but it wasn't my fault! The information that I got from Cygnus was wrong!"

Cygnus defended himself by saying, "I told this bull that we shouldn't rush in to fight without even further investigation. I'm not at fault here. Taurus is just impatient."

The FMian bull notices the smirk coming from Cygnus's beak and roars out of anger. "Cygnus! Don't act like you're out of this blame! We could have gotten the key if you just join me to outnumber him!"

"Silence!" The King yells manages to shut Taurus up. "Taurus… for your failure at retrieving the key, I hereby order you to go on standby."

"But my liege…!"

"What did I say?"

Taurus notices the King's tone is full of his anger, but he has chose to follow his order. Cygnus holds back his amusement at seeing Taurus being scolded by the King.

"Cygnus," King Cepheus calls out, "I hope you have obtain your information from Taurus's defeat."

The FMian swan nods his head. "I did. Thanks to Taurus, I now know what I need to retrieve the Andromeda Key."

"You better. I've already send reinforcements just in case; they should be in your location soon."

Cygnus and Taurus panics when they heard the King sending in the reinforcements. Cygnus tries to persuade the king by saying, "That's not necessary, my liege. I think I can handle on getting the key on my own."

"Just think of them as my backup plan, in case you fail as well. Understand?"

King Cepheus exerts an overwhelming pressure through the monitor, which sends chills down to the two FMians' ghostly appearance. They bow their heads and everything around them becomes silent.